General Orders, 14 November 1780
General Orders
Head Quarters Totowa Tuesday November 14th 1780
Parole Lebanon Countersigns Luck: Loo.
Watchword Lookout
[Officers] For the Day Tomorrow[:] Brigadier General Huntington[,] Colonel Marshall[,] Lieutenant Colonel Newall[,]1 Major Knapp[,] Brigade Major Moore
At the General Court martial of the line whereof Colonel Bailey is president the 10th instant2 Lieutenant Reeves of the 10th Pennsylvania regiment was tried for “A breach of general orders of the 6th instant in granting a pass to Daniel Quinn a soldier in the 10th Pennsylvania regiment.”
The court on consideration are of opinion that Lieutenant Reeves signed a pass for Daniel Quinn to pass to the Light infantry camp on which Quinn passed in breach of general orders; but it appears to the court that it was the intention of Lieutenant Reeves the pass should be signed by the commanding officer of the regiment. On this consideration and the custom of the regiment they think Lieutenant Reeves excuseable.
The Commander in Chief approves the Sentence and Lieutenant Reeves is released from his Arrest.3
To prevent accidents of the same kind happening in future, let the commanding officers of companies only recommend the soldiers to the commanding officers of regiments for passes, this will put it out of their power to make use of the writing of which they are possessed before it is properly authenticated.
Varick transcript, DLC:GW.
1. The general orders refer to Lt. Col. Ezra Newhall.
2. For the establishment of this court-martial, see the general orders for 14 Oct.; see also General Orders, 27 October.
3. Lt. Enos Reeves wrote upon learning of his arrest on 8 Nov.: “Think! Oh Think! … what I must suffer in my present situation. In disgrace, in arrest! for a breach of Genrl Orders! and by His Excellency’s command!
“If there is any thing in this Life, that can equal the Punishment of the Damn’d, it must be an Officer in Arrest” ( 464).
At his court-martial at Totowa on 10 Nov., Reeves “pleaded ‘Not Guilty’” to the charge of granting a pass in violation of the general orders for 6 November. Lt. Col. Samuel Hay testified for Reeves. He explained the custom of granting passes in the Light Infantry “‘previous to the late Orders’” and “‘that he always found Lt Reeves a very punctual Duty Officer.’” Capt. Robert Patton also testified for Reeves. The court-martial resumed on 11 Nov. when Reeves questioned Pvt. Daniel Quinn, who testified that Reeves had ordered the pass taken to the commanding officer of the regiment to be signed, but he “‘could not find the Command’g Officer.’” Reeves closed his defense with a summation that admitted no purposeful wrongdoing and appealed for an acquittal from “Gentlemen who serving in Military Characters can easily and with certainty determine Right from wrong in that Line” ( 464–67).
Daniel Quinn had enlisted for the war in the 10th Pennsylvania Regiment.